The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c6.14

c6.14

One last question : Why have we chosen by preference the bas-reliefs of Barhut? The answer is easy : because most of them are accompanied by an inscription written in the oldest alphabet of central India, the one which towards the middle of the third century before our era was used by the famous king Açoka for his pious edicts. On one of the jambs of the eastern gate, found *in situ*, we read, in a somewhat later script, a mention of the ephemeral suzerain dynasty of the Çungas, which succeeded the Mauryas towards the year 180 B. C.; it relates to the erection of the gate, or, to be more exact, the replacement an old wooden model by a « stone work »; and thus we feel certain that towards the end of the second century the final touch must have been given to the decoration of the *stûpa*, commenced, no doubt, during the third. This is not all. Among the hundred and sixty *graffiti*, more or less, observed on the recovered debris of the balustrade more than half are restricted to giving merely the name of the donor, male or female, of such and such a pillar or